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Wheelchairs
Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to ensure that NHS community trusts do not require insurance cover for wheelchairs loaned to patients. [1786]
Mr. Bowis: Patients are not required to insure their wheelchairs. Patients issued with a powered indoor-outdoor wheelchair may be advised to take out third party insurance so that they are covered against personal liability in the event of an accident.
Network of Access and Child Contact Centres
Mrs. Golding: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to fund the work of the Network of Access and Child Contact Centres. [1903]
Mr. Bowis: The Network of Access and Child Contact Centres may apply for section 64 funding from the Department of Health in the same way as any other voluntary organisation, but it has not done so in the current round.
Consultants
Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library the results of the national survey of the work load of 274 NHS consultants. [540]
Mr. Malone: I refer the hon. Member to the Medical Workforce Standing Advisory Committee's second report, which refers to a survey conducted by the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association in 1992-93 on the amount of time spent by its members on purely management activities. The committee's report is available in the Library.
Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will institute an inquiry into the arrangements for and costs of (a) each retirement of consultants and (b) their subsequent re-employment on a part-time basis. [1800]
Mr. Malone: Most pension arrangements cover all staff groups, including consultants. Data on the cost of consultant retirements, and their subsequent re-employment on a part-time basis, are not available centrally. I have no plans to institute an inquiry on costs for consultants as a separate group.
Mental Health
Dr. Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what is the average percentage of local
27 Nov 1995 : Column: 515
authority personal social services budgets currently spent on mental health services; [1922]
- (2) how many local authorities' expenditure falls below the average currently spent on mental health services; and if he will list those authorities, giving the percentage of their budgets devoted to such services, in descending order. [1923]
Mr. Bowis: Local authorities' budget returns for 1995-96 show that, overall, planned expenditure on mental health services in England represents 5.6 per cent. of the total of personal social services budgets.
| Percentage | |
|---|---|
| Hereford and Worcester | 5.5 |
| Avon | 5.3 |
| Cheshire | 5.3 |
| Bromley | 5.1 |
| Hillingdon | 5.0 |
| Sheffield | 4.9 |
| Newham | 4.9 |
| Knowsley | 4.8 |
| Devon | 4.7 |
| Barking and Dagenham | 4.7 |
| Redbridge | 4.7 |
| East Sussex | 4.7 |
| Dorset | 4.6 |
| Cleveland | 4.6 |
| South Tyneside | 4.6 |
| North Yorkshire | 4.5 |
| Coventry | 4.5 |
| Suffolk | 4.4 |
| Dudley | 4.4 |
| Derbyshire | 4.4 |
| Bexley | 4.2 |
| Wakefield | 4.2 |
| Sefton | 4.2 |
| Rochdale | 4.1 |
| Cumbria | 4.1 |
| Tameside | 4.1 |
| Humberside | 4.1 |
| Salford | 4.1 |
| Wirral | 4.0 |
| Lancashire | 4.0 |
| Berkshire | 3.9 |
| Wiltshire | 3.9 |
| Leeds | 3.9 |
| Kent | 3.9 |
| Cornwall | 3.9 |
| Barnsley | 3.8 |
| Havering | 3.7 |
| Sunderland | 3.7 |
| Wolverhampton | 3.6 |
| Cambridgeshire | 3.5 |
| West Sussex | 3.4 |
| Durham | 3.3 |
| Calderdale | 3.3 |
| Bedfordshire | 3.3 |
| Stockport | 3.2 |
| St. Helens | 3.2 |
| Essex | 3.2 |
| Gloucestershire | 3.1 |
| Hertfordshire | 3.0 |
| Walsall | 2.8 |
| Doncaster | 2.6 |
| Bury | 2.6 |
| Lincolnshire | 2.4 |
| Northumberland | 2.2 |
| Wigan | 2.2 |
| Staffordshire | 1.8 |
| Isles of Scilly | 0.5 |
Percentages based on figures from local authorities' budget returns on form RA96.
27 Nov 1995 : Column: 516
Dr. Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for health if it is his policy that places for mentally ill people in residential homes are interchangeable with psychiatric hospital beds. [1921]
Mr. Bowis: Our policy is that mentally ill people should be placed in the accommodation best suited to their assessed needs.
Bed Availability
Mr. Spearing: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on what basis of usage, survey or projection he has instructed or advised district health authorities of the number of beds per unit or population; and what adjustments in those levels are made for observed and recorded variations in needs for acute health care. [1796]
Mr. Sackville: We have not issued any central guidance. It is for individual health authorities and trusts to determine local bed requirements in accordance with local needs and circumstances.
Mr. Ieuan Wyn Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was for each NHS trust and for England as a whole for the last available two years the frequency of closure of admittance to emergency hospital beds, expressing the number of occasions of such closure as a proportion of the total number of hospital beds and indicating the percentage increase or decrease in each case. [639]
Mr. Sackville: This information is not available centrally. Information on the average daily number of available beds for each NHS trust for the years 1993-94 and 1994-95 is published in "Bed availability for England", copies of which are available in the Library.
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information his Department maintains on the number of (a) rehabilitation, (b) convalescent, (c) respite and (d) continuing care beds available in the NHS and the private sector. [2779]
Mr. Bowis: Information collected from the national health service is published in "Bed Availability for England," copies of which are available in the Library. Data are collected by broad ward classification rather than by clinical specialty and returns are made on a financial year basis. Information from the independent sector does not identify the purpose for which beds are provided.
Chiropody Services
Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to issue further instructions to health authorities on the provision of chiropody services to men aged between 60 and 65 years. [1799]
27 Nov 1995 : Column: 517
Cow's Milk
Mr. Alton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department has (a) evaluated and (b) commissioned into the effect of cow's milk on the health of those who are intolerant to it; what consideration he has given to making lactolite available via the national health service; and what inter-departmental discussions have been held about the extension of the welfare food scheme to include alternatives to cow's milk to those on income support. [2003]
Mr. Sackville: My Department has not commissioned any specific research into cow's milk intolerance but it keeps under review the scientific literature on the general issue of food intolerance, including cow's milk intolerance. I have given no consideration to making lactolite available via the national health service. The Department has held no inter-departmental discussions about any extension of the welfare food scheme to include alternatives to cow's milk.
Family Health Services Authority, Doncaster
Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the severance payment made to the last chief executive of Doncaster FHSA. [1785]
Mr. Malone: There was no severance payment made. The employment contract was allowed to run to expiry. On retirement, appropriate superannuation benefits were paid.
GP Lists
Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to require general practitioners to provide patients whom they remove from their lists with detailed reasons for that removal. [2235]
NHS Doctors
Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hospital doctors have left the national health service in each year since 1991 who qualified (a) five years previously and (b) 10 years previously. [2278]
Mr. Malone: Data are not available in the form requested. Evidence of doctors leaving the profession prematurely is available from studies published in 1991 by Professor James Parkhouse. These studies suggested that although about 20 per cent. of doctors were not practising in the national health service five years after qualification the majority of these were not lost permanently to medicine. Many were working in short- term postings overseas to further develop their skills, while others were working in United Kingdom medical work outside the NHS, or taking short career breaks.
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